


Omniscience

by Dorkathus



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Dragons, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-07
Updated: 2012-01-07
Packaged: 2017-10-29 03:24:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/315286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dorkathus/pseuds/Dorkathus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Time and memory are not the same to a creature as old as the Great Dragon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Omniscience

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Jelazakazone for beta'ing this for me!

The great cave beneath Camelot where Kilgharrah was imprisoned stretched for miles, although his chain would allow him the freedom of only a fraction of that. The craggy outcrop he roosted on was far above the little door through which those rare few humans could visit him.

Kilgharrah stirred in the new day. It was always dark in the cave, but he had slept and that was enough to judge the passing of time. The manacle around his hind-leg grated on scale, and bleary gold eyes eased open. With no sun to warm his wings, warm his blood, he was always sluggish when he awoke. It was part of his life here.

What did he remember today that he did not remember the day before? What memory was new amongst the many others? Great jaws stretched in a yawn. Time was simply not the same to a being as old as he, as ageless as he. Forward and back, past and future, they became closer kin, destinies something to recall rather than predict. Was his ability to know events yet to come born of magic, or was it that time held less of a hold on him than it did on the small, ever frail creatures on the land above him. For all his wisdom, he was not sure. It was in his nature, and had been in the nature of all dragons when they had lived.

One day when he grew too old, too feeble, Kilgharrah was certain that his wits would wander. The past and future would become as one, his confused mind unable to tell one from the other. The young humans seeking his wisdom (and they were always young to Kilgharrah) would be left trying to decipher his ramblings, greeting strangers as old friends, speaking of events long past as if they were imminent.

But that was all a long way from today. Today he had remembered that the young warlock would visit him soon. Or had he visited already?

Kilgharrah chuckled, his amusement reverberating through his chest and then the cavern around him. Perhaps that day was not so many centuries off after all.


End file.
